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I finally got to play the Ironstone nine, which opened at The Quarry earlier this year. It’s a very solid nine holes, which mesh perfectly with the other 18 holes: Granite and Slate. But then, it’s a Les Furber design, so you wouldn’t expect anything else.

On a day that a winter storm hit Edmonton, it’s hard to envision what the redesigned holes at the Derrick Golf and Winter Club will look like when course designer Jeff Mingay is finished with the $12-million makeover of the south-side facility.

Blair Buttar, the Glendale’s assistant head professional, hit golf’s magic number, shooting a 12-under 59 at the Leduc Golf & Country Club. “It was crazy. Every putt I stood over went in,” said Buttar, who had 12 birdies and no bogeys.

Like a dentist’s office or a night club, Royal Mayfair’s Mike Belbin had all the shots in the 36-hole Alberta PGA’s Fletcher Tour championship played at the Blackhawk Golf Club. Belbin had it all while firing off a course-record 6-under 65 that included five straight birdies over a tough stretch of holes on the back nine in Wednesday’s final round.

Before we get to this week’s holes-in-one — and once again there were plenty — I have to top off this column with a shot that is much more rare than an ace: an albatross. Edmonton Golf Association president did it on his home Raven Crest course when he knocked in a 17-degree hybrid from 247 yards on the par 5 10th hole.

AJ Armstrong birdied the 18th hole at the Edmonton Petroleum Club to get into a playoff. Then he birdied it again on the first playoff hole to win the two-day Melcor Lube-X Edmonton junior championship over Leduc’s Pieter Peskens. “It’s a great way to end the golf season,” said Armstrong, 15, who two-putted for the win after hitting a five-iron from 231 yards to within 20 feet.

“It was a dogfight all the way around,” said Calgary’s Scott Allred, who won the two-day Alberta PING Canada club professional championship at the Glendale Golf & Country Club by two shots over Blackhawk’s Craig McArthur. It was the third time Allred, who shot a bogey-free, 7-under 65 on Monday and then an even-par 72 in Tuesday’s final round, has won the event. His previous wins came in 2007 and 2008.

In wet, windy and cold conditions more akin to a British Open — where par is great and a birdie downright miraculous — Glendale’s Blair Buttar won the Cobra Puma Golf Alberta PGA’s assistants championship in what evolved into a three-man playoff Tuesday at Lewis Estates. “It was brutal at times,” said Buttar, who prevailed on the third playoff hole. “It was a club and a half wind and, at times, it was raining sideways. It was hard to get the right club in your hands and get the right distance. It was pretty nasty out there.”

I don’t know about you, but I think one of the most embarrassing moments in golf would have to be running out of golf balls. My son was playing Northern Bear with two buddies the other day. They each started with only three balls — a mistake to begin with — but by the time they got to No. 17, they were down to just one ball each. After the conclusion of that hole, they were quickly down to one ball among the three of them.

There was no chicken and there was no egg. So don’t bother asking what came first. “Trestle Creek Golf Resort was always a resort and a golf course,” the project’s director of marketing, Dean Beaton, said of the $30-million endeavour which is being built on 440 acres.

Dressed in the Oklahoma State/Halloween colours of orange and black, Jocelyn Alford put the biggest scare into herself. Starting Friday’s fourth and final round of the Sun Life Alberta Ladies Amateur with a five-shot lead, Alford’s advantage quickly evaporated on another hot afternoon at St. Albert’s Sturgeon Valley Golf Course.

And you think golf isn’t a weird game? “Crazy,” said Michael Gligic of Burlington, Ont., after winning the $175,000 ATB Financial Classic, presented by Telus, on the second playoff hole over Arizona’s Matt Marshall.

Almost Done!

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